Honey-Yes, UFOs-No - Antibiotics in Action

Honey—Yes, UFOs—No

Pseudoscience and Occam's Razor

The Great Pyramid at Giza, built as
a tomb for Pharoah Khufu about 4,500
years ago, is guarded by the Sphinx.

This module is about science, but let's talk for a moment about pseudoscience. For example, some people believe the pyramids of ancient Egypt were built by visitors from outer space. Now there's an old principle in science called Occam's razor, and it states that the simplest explanation for anything is probably the right one. Can you think of simpler explanations for how the pyramids were built? It isn't very hard, really, since it is reasonable that even the huge heavy stones of the pyramids can be moved with enough people pushing them. This makes the flying saucer theory unnecessary to explain how the pyramids got there.

While talk of pyramid building space aliens may seem like harmless lunacy, Dr. Zahi Hawass finds the notion outright offensive. Hawass is an accomplished archaeologist and director of the Giza Plateau archaeological site for the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and as an Egyptian, he sees the idea that his ancient ancestors were incapable of building the grandiose structures as blatantly racist and an insult to his nation.
Who Really Built the Pyramids?

But being a good scientist, Hawass hasn't just attacked the motives of the crackpots who credit space aliens with building his country's most famous icons. Rather, he has gathered a great pyramid worth of evidence to refute them. Most important, he discovered in the shadow of the pyramids a city that seems to be the living quarters of the workers who built the pyramid, as well as the graves of many of the builders themselves. Genetic testing of their remains has shown the workers' DNA to be nearly identical to that of modern Egyptians. That settled the mystery: The pyramids were built by ordinary human beings and those human beings were Egyptians.

But in reality, real scientists figured the ancestors of modern Egyptians had built the pyramids, as Occam's razor would suggest. More important to mainstream archaeologists was what Hawass' find tells us about the daily lives of the regular Egyptians who moved and carved the stone blocks to build the pyramids. The remains of the workers have taught us a great deal about ancient Egyptian medicine. It turns out the doctors of ancient Egypt knew a lot more than we had thought. For example, many of the bodies found show signs of broken bones that had been set and healed while the patient was still alive. Other remains showed signs of amputations, with stumps that had healed enough to suggest that the patients lived for many years after the surgery. Far from living in a primitive time, the evidence showed that ancient Egyptians were not only capable of great feats of engineering, but were rather skilled at medicine as well.
The Tastiest Antibiotic

There was more to ancient Egyptian medicine than setting broken bones. As you may know, honey doesn't need to be refrigerated. For many reasons, bacteria don't survive well in it, so it doesn't spoil. The doctors of ancient Egypt put this property of honey to work, treating open wounds with honey to prevent infection. This treatment is described in an ancient Egyptian scroll known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, and the method must have saved untold numbers of lives from deadly infections at pyramid work sites where scrapes, gashes, and cuts would have been common.

hydrogen peroxide

There's a lot we don't know about how honey fights infection, as we often develop technologies before science can explain how they work. We do know that honey contains some amount of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). This compound kills germs, and is often used to sterilize cuts today. Today, doctors have begun to investigate honey's antibiotic properties scientifically. Early experimental results show that honey might help stop even some of the bacteria that are the toughest to kill, such as Staphylococcus aureus.

What's more, when honey is applied to burns or wounds, they often heal without leaving scars. Scientists are still asking why this is. But they know that honey contains a large amount of glucose, a very simple sugar. We also know that scar tissue contains a lot of a protein called collagen. One theory is that glucose combines chemically with collagen in such a way that prevents the collagen from forming scar tissue.
Respect For the Ancients

The renewed interest in honey as an antibiotic may reflect an overall change in attitudes toward people who lived long ago. In the past, we looked on them as primitive compared with ourselves, with our impressive modern technologies. This arrogance led people to doubt that ancient Egyptians could have built the massive stone pyramids. But as we approach the people of ancient times with more humility, we realize that they were intelligent and resourceful in meeting the challenges that faced them, and that they may just be able to teach us a thing or two if we'll only respect them enough to listen.
For more information, at other Web sites...

Doctors Turning Sweet on Healing with Honey — news story from CNN, 8 March 2000.
In Sickness and in Health — review of ancient Egyptian medine with passages from the Edwin Smith papyrus describing medical use of honey, created by André Dollinger.
The Plateau — the official site of Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation.
The Pyramid Builders — article excerpt from National Geographic magazine with photos and descriptions of excavations at Giza of the pyramid workers' living quarters. The complete article is available in print in the November 2001 issue of National Geographic magazine.

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Image credit

The Great Pyramid at Giza...: Courtesy Susan Hamson.

Copyright ©2002 The Chemical Heritage Foundation